It's almost over

For almost four years, the expiry date on Penny Sarchet's student ID card has seemed impossibly far away but now her university-based PhD is coming to an end. What has she learned along the way?

Not everyone will get what you are doing

Friends and family will be in a continual state of confusion about why you are still at university and what a graduate student actually is. I have relatives who believe that I'm doing "what they do on CSI", whereas in fact I'm studying plant developmental biology and genetically fingerprinting plants, not murder victims.

Research your research project

There is a lot you have to decide on when selecting a PhD - the project area, the supervisor, the institution, even the continent. The various summer research projects I had done as an undergraduate helped me home in on my interests and find the right lab to pursue them in. It can be difficult to know what you are getting into when agreeing to a PhD, so do whatever you can to get a taster of the project you'll be doing or a feel of the lab you'll be joining before committing yourself.

Choose a place with lots of grad students

A PhD is a fairly special mix of sustained unpredictability, bemusement and pressure. After an exhausting week counting cells in a darkened room, you need to go for a drink with someone else who knows what that feels like. Graduate students make excellent, if slightly nerdy, friends. There will be someone around who can programme your computer for you, share their home-brewed cider, and invite you over to use the 3D surround-sound home cinema they have built in their lounge.

Befriend post-docs

They'll show you how to do experiments and reassure you that the stresses and strains of your PhD are in no way exceptional or unique.

Don't think you know what it is like to do science

A PhD is not the natural extension of an undergraduate science degree. The emphasis is on depth of understanding rather than breadth and you spend just as much time doing as you do thinking. Whilst undergraduate lab projects can be invaluable in helping you choose your PhD topic, what they can't show you is what it's really like to spend four whole years working towards one goal. The plants I study have a life cycle of nearly three months, so experiments can be months or even years in the making. To be able to produce a thesis at the end of it requires extreme planning, patience, adaptability and perspective. In contrast, when you are doing an undergrad project, you effectively swan into a lab for a couple of months to collect data from an experiment set up long ago by some poor graduate student.

Do it for the right reasons

Don't do a PhD because your parents want to tell everyone you are a doctor or because you think white coats are sexy. A PhD is a long-term commitment for an early twenty-something to make and if you are not doing it because you want to contribute to science, you are going to struggle. Some people sign up for PhDs simply so they can continue being a student but they soon learn that mid-week partying, afternoon naps and long vacations are strictly the preserve of undergraduates.

Appreciate the cool bits

Immersed in your daily lab routine, it is easy to lose sight of the perks. You get to decide your own objectives, design and execute your own experiments, and form your own conclusions. This is a level of freedom and responsibility you would be hard pushed to find in any other job for recent graduates. You also get to do some pretty exciting stuff - I have used lasers and electron beams to look inside cells and studied when and how individual genes are expressed. Every now and then, pause to remember that your 10-year-old self would find this very cool.

You get to do things outside the lab too

When applying for non-academic jobs, PhD students usually emphasise their analytical skills. While these are useful attributes, it is pretty obvious that you are comfortable with handling data if you have a science doctorate. I have found that it can be the other experiences you pick up during your PhD that impress more. I have sat on departmental committees and helped organise symposia, both of which have allowed me to develop transferable skills that are valued inside and outside academia. I have also had the opportunity to present my research at international conferences and some of the most fun I have had talking about science was with a group of hard-drinking Italian developmental biologists in the wine cellar of a German palace.

Penny Sarchet is a PhD student at the University of Oxford and a freelance writer

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